


Pay the Consequence

by RuckyStarnes (GracieForeth)



Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Based on a Creepypasta, Demonic Possession, Demons, Human Experimentation, Hunting, Occult, Possession, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21911836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GracieForeth/pseuds/RuckyStarnes
Summary: HYDRA experimented on Natasha, unleashing an unholy demon onto the world. Anyone who tries to stop her…it…ends up dead, because once you lay eyes on the demon, you enter in a game of tag with only one outcome. With the dwindling members of the Avengers, they devise a trap to exorcise the demon with Bucky volunteering to be the bait.
Kudos: 4





	Pay the Consequence

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on the Nightcore song Hide and Seek sung by Lizz Robinett. Since it’s Halloween season, I wanted to do something a bit horrorish with no happy ending. I will advise the song and this story are a bit unsettling. Please heed the warnings.

The sound of the doorbell made Bucky jump, sweat beading on his forehead and temples. He swallowed hard as a shaky hand turned the phone to look at the video feed, showing a little girl standing outside the front door with vivid green eyes and red hair pulled out of her face, secured with a black bow. Her light red dress, puffed out by the black petticoat, seemed almost inanimate considering it was storming outside.

“Buuuucky,” she called out in a singsong voice with a malicious smile. “Open the door. I hate waiting.” Her knuckles rapped out “Shave and a haircut” on the wooden door, innocently bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Bucky’s stomach clenched, watching the sinister looking girl he used to know as Natasha. Somehow, the woman he loved was now nine, looking like some possessed lolita murderess.

“You can’t run, Bucky,” she taunted innocently, disappearing from the camera view. “I seeee yooouuu.”

His blue eyes snapped to the window beside him to see her standing close the glass, her breath fogging the window slightly. She gave him a childlike smile that made his blood turn cold, lifeless eyes that held a hellish amusement. Once their eyes locked he could feel a pull, her lips curling upwards in a wicked grin. The look reminded him of what he had seen on the tapes.

_ ~*~ Two Weeks Earlier ~*~ _

_ A horrific scream ripped through the silent compound, stopping Steve and Bucky in their tracks. They shared a look, worry written over both faces. _

_ “Cap,” Clint’s voice cracked over the coms, “found Nat. You won’t believe what HYDRA planned to do to her.” _

_ Dread washed through Bucky knowing full well that HYDRA was capable of anything when it came to experimenting and torture. He listened to Clint explain something about a lore with something called Xuos, reverse aging, and hide and seek. Nothing was define nor coherent with what Clint was reciting, the notes incomplete. Just the way HYDRA like: to keep prying eyes guessing. _

_ “The lore and game sounds like a ruse,” Bucky grumbled, his eyes flitting through the dark room as he tried to figure out where that horrible scream came from. It didn’t sound like Natasha, but if they’re doing something to her, she might not sound like herself. _

_ “Guys, there’s a kid here,” Sam’s voice cracked through, the coms increasing with interference. But before anyone of the guys could caution Sam, they heard a guttural scream that was cut short, followed by a childlike giggle. _

_ “Sam,” Steve called through the coms with only silence as an answer. He repeated his name and Bucky could see fear in his friend’s eyes and the slight desperation in the way he said Sam’s name. _

_ “I’m almost there,” Clint pants and they could hear running somewhere in the building making Steve and Bucky turn in the direction. “Jesus Chr---” _

_ “Barton?” _

_ Steve looked at Bucky, almost all color gone from his face as they made their way down the dark corridor only to stop outside of two swinging doors with a dim light shining underneath. They both listened, unable to hear anything coming from the room. Steve moved to peek into the cloudy window and Bucky heard his friend gasp.  _

_ “Buck, we need to get back to the compound,” he whispered, unable to tear his eyes away from the window. _

_ “What is it?” A part of Bucky didn’t want to know. _

_ “We...we need to go now.” _

_ “But the others. Steve we don’t le---” _

_ “Now!” Steve seethed turning towards the brunet and pushed him as he whispered ‘run’. _

~*~

“Buuuuuucky!”

The thing that wore Natasha's younger self was still smiling but it was now tight. It folded her tiny fists to pound on the double paned glass.

"You can't win, Bucky," it called, its voice still light and melodic. "What makes you think you can when everyone else lost?"

Bucky shuddered slightly, remembering all the broken and gored bodies that this girlish Natasha left behind. First it was Sam, then Clint. And when he and Steve ran, she...it followed. He remembered the last two weeks being filled with fear and blood. So much blood. Barely anyone on their team was still alive. She got Steve within a day, ripping his throat out with a calm coldness that was unsettling. Scott and Hope were the ones that made Bucky sick the most. The demon stepping on both when they shrunk before forcing their bodies to morph back into their normal size, revealing the grotesque aftermath: necks snapped, arms and legs bent at odd angles, backs crushed.

Strange was the one that was helpful in figuring out what had happened to Natasha. And the thing that was controlling Natasha? It was from another dimension, a soul eating demon of sorts that likes to stalk its prey using the body of children. Xuos. Strange expected Mordo was the one to assist HYDRA in learning of this abomination, known as Xuos, inhabited a plane that was unreachable unless a sorcerer was able to unlock the three gates.

_ ~*~ Last Week ~*~ _

_ “Are we really safe in numbers?” Tony asked with a sense of dread mixed with anger. “I feel like we are sitting ducks here, Doc. I’ve already had to watch on a camera feed of that...that...that thing, being a smaller version of Natasha, kill Happy and Rhodey.” _

_ Bucky couldn’t bring himself to look at Tony, knowing how hard that must have been. He witnessed the little terror take out Steve easily even though he fought as hard as he could. He looked around the room and the faces that were there all have seen the carnage this thing could unleash. _

_ “The only way we can get rid of it is to send it back to where it belonged,” Strange answered evenly, but Bucky knew his patience was thin while he tried to keep the fear out of his mind.  _

_ All of them were scared. _

_ They have lost half their team, most of their strongest hitters. Thor, Bruce, T’Challa... It made Bucky sick as he lost himself in the horror, so when Wanda touched his shoulder he jumped, metal fist pulled back. _

_ “It’s alright James,” she whispered, her hand squeezing his shoulder as her other covered the metal limb to lower it down. _

_ “The notes said something about a relic, or emblem,” Carol added, pushing off the wall she was leaning against. “Bucky was able to translate most of the notes. They had to use something to bind it here. What if we destroyed that? Could it weaken it?” _

_ Strange’s brows furrowed as he looked over the transcribed notes that Bucky worked on shortly after retrieving them from the warehouse a few days after they lost Sam and Clint. “It might, but we won’t get Natasha back. That’s something Xuos done himself and they are now one. Removing him will kill her.” _

_ “What about killing her?” Tony rushed, “I mean, we know that she can take a wallop, but she can’t be invincible.” _

_ “She’s already dead,” Bucky grumbled, “Have you not looked at her? She’s dead. They are just using her as a vessel. Dead things can’t be killed twice. What we do know is that you lock eyes with her, you’re next. She comments on finding the poppet and Strange said before the thing hates fire. What if…” _

_ “No James,” Wanda interjected, her hand gripping his shoulder harshly, “you are not going…” _

_ “My closest friends are gone Wanda. Most of our team is gone. We NEED to stop her...this thing. Besides Carol, I’m the only other one that could possibly stay ahead just enough for Strange to get this Xuos back to where it belongs.” _

_ “It’s suicide, Barnes,” Tony sighed. _

_ “Got a better idea?” _

_ Carol fixed Bucky with a hard glare before resigning, nodding her head. _

_ “Besides, if we never got separated in Munich---” _

_ “What’s happening right now, Barnes...it’s not your fault.” Tony’s words struck Bucky. Stark was a man who held a grudge and he had against Bucky in the past.  _

_ “Even if that’s true, I feel responsible.”  _

_ ~*~ _

“You know I hid the poppet when I arrived,” the little girl called out. Bucky could hear a knob jiggle somewhere in the abandoned house. He hoped the others arrived soon, as there wasn’t much to keep this little girl, who wore his ex-lover’s face, from getting to him.

Bullets only seemed to piss it off and Bucky wasn’t about to engage in a knife fight with the thing.

“Bucky, why don’t you wanna play with me? I thought you loved me?” The lithe voice was taunting him, reminding him of Natasha and it brought bile to his throat. He heard a snap followed by a creek. The demon managed to break through the wards on the house. 

“Your sorcerer isn’t any stronger than the one who brought me here,” she called out, “he was a delicious appetizer with the other men that were there. Though I would have to say that I rather enjoyed your friend, Steve, the most. His memories...how you were the last thing on his mind when I finished him. You know that’s how I find my next one. From their memories. Grievances make people weak. I can taste yours Bucky. You lost your friends, your ex-lover, and your current. You can blame Wanda for sending me to you. Steve and Wanda cared about you as much as Natasha did. Like how you had nightmares about all your victims, you like cinnamon dolce lattes, and you’re scared of the dark and storms.”

Bucky bit his tongue, not wanting to give away his spot in the small bedroom upstairs. This thing...it knew things only the people he cared about knew. He kept his weight on the support beams under the floor, moving only if he had to. What Nat-no, Xuos, didn’t know was that they had found this thing’s doll and Tony was retrieving it while Carol observed the terror he was experiencing. 

“Buuuuucky!”

God, he was starting to hate his name, and he vowed to go by Jamie after this was done...if he survived, that is. 

“You think I can’t hear you above me? Your heartbeat is giving you away, Bucky.” 

He twisted his wrist to pull up the holo to see where people were at. Tony was close and Carol made her way down from the ozone. Sure he reassured his friends that he was fine with being the bait. As long as they were able to send this demon back before he, she, it could kill anyone else.

Light footsteps made their way up the stairs and Bucky had to calm his heart, but it failed when Carol’s voice broke through the silent coms.

“Barnes, you need to get out of there.”

He shook his head. The others were two minutes out. He had to hold out for that long at least.

“Barnes, she’s right outside your door. You need to get out of there. Now.”

“I got this Air Force,” he grunted, turning his com off as he readied himself for the small redhead to come in.

“Bucky, I found you,” she sang as the doorknob turned. He could hear Tony’s jets as the room lit with the bright blue-white of his arc beams.

“Time to pay the consequence,” the demon possessed Natasha sang, the door opening to reveal the sinister smile on his ex-girlfriend’s childlike face, framed by deep red curls. 

“Whatever,” he mumbled, “as long as I am the last one.”


End file.
